幸せ [しあわせ] (adj-na,n) happiness, good fortune, luck, blessing
I actually bought this as part of my 100万字 challenge. (At time of writing not at all on target at about 2.5万字）Finding suitable texts is quite a challenge. This one seemed to kill two birds with one stone. I could have reading practice and at the same time have reading comprehension practice for JLPT. The easier and quicker I can read the easier the JLPT will be I think.
日本語能力試験 直前対策 文法 ３級 (国書刊行会）
This is a companion volume to JLPT3 Kanji and Vocabulary Cram Session.
Again there are 15 mock tests interspersed with short sections of grammar. Again it is all in Japanese so the grammar explanations require a bit of work. There are also explanations for all the answers. However, as they are all in Japanese, they might not be simple to understand; although the extra practice might be useful.
The book is from before the changes made to the test 2 years ago. However the nature of the grammar questions haven’t changed. The only difference I can see is that section IV has an extra question. What the book doesn’t have is any questions for the 読解 reading comprehension part of the third paper.
As usual try to do these tests against the clock. Suggested times are: Section I ー13分; Section II ー14分; Section III ー8分; Section IV ー5分 . 40分 in total, leaving 30分 for the last two reading comprehension sections.
日本語能力試験 直前対策 文字・語彙 ３級 (国書刊行会）
I decided that 直前対策 translates best as “cram session”.
This is another interesting little A5 sized book for JLPT3. It covers the first paper that tests vocabulary and kanji. It does this by giving you 15 mock tests. Intersperesed among these tests are vocabulary lists. No english. No explanations. But lot’s of practice. Lot’s of exposure to the words you need to know.
The tests are standard stuff.
The only slightly dissapointing note is they seem to be modelled on the test before the changes made 2 years ago. This means that there could be about 20 or so kanji omitted and the form of the questions in the end sections are slightly different.
In the actual test there are 5 questions in section IV where you are given a sentence then have to choose a sentence with a similar meaning from the four presented. In section V there are 5 questions where you are given a word and have to pick the sentence where that word is used correctly.
In this book there are 10 questions of the type found in Section IV and no section V.
That said this is still a useful book so you can concentrate on a particular part of the test. The word lists are useful as they are broken down by type and grouped by theme. This is much easier to memorise than a list of unrelated words.
As usual try to do these tests against the clock. 35 mins each. Then check your wrong and guessed answers. Check unknown words. Check what the sentences mean.
実力アップ!日本語能力試験3級 文法編 実力アップ! (Unicom Inc)
A challenging book. This is a Japanese Grammar written in Japanese. There are two pages of an English preface but after that you’re on your own. There is an English translation available separately but Part of what interested me was trying to cover the grammar in an immersive manner. It’s a bit slower than using an English book but it might pay off in the long run.
３級問題種
Komoku Seiri Hyojyun Mondaishu 3kyu (Bonjinsha)
This is an excellent book for revision. It consists almost solely of questions with no explanations. It’s completely in Japanese but understanding what you have to do is no problem. The useful idea behind the book is a short test you take at the start. Depending on the questions you get wrong it points you toward other sections of the book with the aim of improving your score. If you have already covered the material it would be a good book for the last 4 to 6 weeks of your JLPT study. It will help you focus on your weak points and consolidate your studies. I used an earlier version when I sat JLPT4 and found it very useful.
There are also audio tapes (I don’t think CDs are available) that go with this for the listening questions but they were so expensive I didn’t buy them.
